Crystal lattice, Space lattice

• A crystal lattice is defined as “the arrangement of atoms in a crystal”. It is also known as space lattice.
• Or it is location of the constituents entities of the crystal in three-dimensions.
• The arrangement of ions and electrons will be disturbed when external force or pressure is applied and this
leads to defect.
• Atoms in space lattice are so small that they are invisible.
• Today, the newest “Electron microscope” can show particles as small as ten billionths of an inch.
• A three-dimensional crystal lattice is described by three sections a, b, and c, which are equal to the distance to
the nearest elementary particles along the coordinate axis and three angles made by each two of these
sections, α, β, and γ .

Arrangement of elementary particles in a crystal:

A= three-dimensional view; B= scheme
• The structure of crystals is described by:
1. Microstructure or fine structure, which is studied by diffraction method like using microscope, micrometers,
etc.
2. Macrostructure, which is studied by naked eyes or by magnifying glass.
Crystal systems
• The relationships between the parameters (α, β, and γ) determine the shape of an elementary cell.
• According to the shape of elementary cells, all crystals are divided into seven systems (Table 1).
• And are sometimes termed the lattice parameters of a crystal structure. On this basis there are possible
combinations of a, b, c, and α, β, and γ, each of which represents a distinct crystal system.

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(b) A unit cell with X, Y, and Z coordinate axes, showing axial lengths (a, b, and c) and interaxial angles (alpha,
beta, and gamma).

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 Unit cell
• If the large space lattice of a metal break down to its smallest fundamental arrangement, it will be known as
a unit cell.
• A space lattice is simply a group of unit cells – perhaps billions – in which each unit cell is identical.
• Beside the basic shapes, there are fourteen independent ways of arranging the points in the three dimensional
system but only three, most common types of metals, are described here.
• The three most common metallic crystal structures for metals are:
1. Body – centred cubic (bcc),
2. Face – centred cubic (fcc),
3. Close – packed hexagonal (hcp)

Simple cubic

• The Body-cantered cubic crystal structure:

BCC crystal lattice is a centred cubic with nine atoms of which eight are located at the corners of the cube and
the ninth at the centre.

For the body-cantered cubic crystal structure, (a) a hard sphere unit cell representation, (b) a reduced-sphere
unit cell, and (c) an aggregate of many atoms.

• In the following metals the unit cells are BCC.

Barium, Chromium, Iron, Tungsten, Vanadium, Tantalum, Molybdenum, Etc.
• The Face-centred cubic crystal structure

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• The crystal structure found for many metals has a unit cell of cubic geometry, with atoms located at each of
the corners and canters of all the cube faces.

For the face-centred cubic crystal structure: (a) a hard sphere unit cell representation, (b) a reduced-sphere
unit cell, and (c) an aggregate of many atoms.
• FCC– has 14 atoms. 8 are located at corners of the cube and 6 at the centers of six faces.
• The following metals are typical examples of fcc:
Aluminium, Calcium, Copper, Gold, Lead, Nickel, Platinum, Silver, Etc.
The Hexagonal close-packed crystal structure
• The top and bottom faces of the unit cell consist of six atoms that form regular hexagons and surround a single
atom in the center.
• Another plane that provides three additional atoms to the unit cell is situated between the top and bottom
planes.
• The atoms in this midplane have as nearest neighbours in both of the adjacent two planes.
• The equivalence of six atoms in contained in each unit cell; one-sixth of each of the 12 top and bottom face
corner atoms, one-half of each of the 2 center face atoms, and all the 3 midplane interior atoms. If a and c
represent, respectively, the short and long unit cell dimensions of fig.a, the c/a ratio should be 1.633;
however, for some HCP metals this ratio deviates from the ideal value.

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 Fig. For the hexagonal close-packed crystal structure, (a) a reduced-sphere unit cell (a and c represent the
short and long edge lengths, respectively), and (b) an aggregate of many atoms

• HCP– is simply hexagonal and has a more compact arrangement of atoms this is found in such metals as –
beryllium, Cobalt, Magnesium, Titanium, Zinc etc.

HCP FCC BCC

Close-Packed Crystal Structures

• The FCC and HCP crystal structures have the same atomic packing factors (0.74), which is the most efficient
packing of equal-sized spheres or atoms.
• In addition to unit cells representations, these two crystal structures may be described in terms of close-
packed planes of atoms (i.e., planes having a maximum atom or sphere-packing density).

Fig. (a) A portion of a close-packed plane of atoms; A, B, and C positions are indicated. (b) The AB, stacking
sequence for close-packed atomic planes.

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 Packed plane stacking sequence for hexagonal close-packed

Fig. (a) Close-packed stacking Sequence for a face-centered cubic. (b) A corner has been removed to show the
relation between the stacking of close-packed planes of atoms and the FCC crystal structure; the heavy
triangle outlines a (111) plane